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Aliens Slated for Next-Gen Game 45

Posted by Zonk from the yay-facehuggers dept.
Gamespot reports that there's going to be an Aliens title for the new round of consoles. Sega has been tapped (again) to bring the Fox license to market, with an expectation that the game will be showing up in 2009. From the article: "This is not the first time either company has adapted the sci-fi series for gaming. In 1993, Sega released the arcade game Alien 3: The Gun, while the Fox Interactive brand scored a hit with the PC first-person shooting series Alien Versus Predator. Other publishers to tackle the franchise in interactive form include Electronic Arts (Aliens Versus Predator: Extinction for PlayStation 2), Konami (Aliens for the arcade), Capcom (Alien Vs. Predator for the arcade), and the former incarnation of Acclaim (Alien Trilogy and Alien 3 for multiple platforms)."
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Aliens Slated for Next-Gen Game More

Aliens Slated for Next-Gen Game

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  • New (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    New on XBOX: Aliens Vs. the Burger King

  • Atari Jaguar (Score:2, Interesting)

    by future assassin ( 639396 )
    Lets not forget AVP on the Jaguar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_vs_Predator_(Ja guar_game) [wikipedia.org]. One hell of a 3D game for its day. The Aliens scared the crap out of me and a few of my friends playing it. See an old skool Atari AVP commercial here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0szF9nVicOg [youtube.com]

  • Thats it man, game over man, GAME OVER! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Cordath ( 581672 ) on Wednesday December 13, 2006 @03:46AM (#17219860)
    Well, somebody had to say it.

  • How many hundreds of dollars did i pump into that Aliens arcade game back in the day... bet my high score is still on there. The Landing hotel in Egg Harbor WI if anybody wants to check.
  • I hope SEGA treats the franchise with the reverence and irreverence it needs.

    A part of me wants them to build a game that is faithful to the Aliens franchise like the two AVP games released for the PC. The Xenomorphs, brutal and nasty. The Predators, merciless and unrelenting. The United States Colonial Marines, cocky and sardonic. The weapons gritty and awesome.

    However, another part of me wants them to rebuild that classic Aliens Versus Predator Capcom arcade beat 'em up, ridiculously featuring 1000

  • Wishlist for a new Aliens game (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 13, 2006 @05:15AM (#17220246)
    Ok, a few things I'd like to see in a new Aliens game, ranted vaguely in the direction of the developers:

    1) No Predator. Please, god, no Predator. Aliens are scary. Predators... well... they have a certain slight "cool" factor, but ultimately, I've seen scarier things watching Sesame Street. The Predator campaigns in both of the PC fpses were utterly dull and insipid.

    2) Keep it in a first person or, at worst, third person perspective. Extinction wasn't scary. Aliens are scary when they are leaning over you, dripping slime into your face, as you scramble to reload your rifle before they can plunge their jaws into your face. They're not scary when they're a bunch of little figures running around jumping at other little figures a few hundred feet below the camera. The first person perspective limits the player's perspective and better allows for paranoia and surprises.

    3) Give us a nice, long marine campaign. The marine campaign in AvP2 was excellent in many ways, despite the hideous engine. Sadly, it was quite short and only made up a third of the total game. The Predator campaign was just boring and the Alien campaign degenerated into a case of "hunt for the tiny little vent you need to find to progress to the next section". Give us a plot that hopefully doesn't involve yet-another-mad-scientist-trying-to-control-the-Al iens, give us a nice selection of guns to blow the aliens away with and give us some sections where the player has to go without said guns, just to keep the scare factor up. Pay attention to pacing - that the first two Aliens movies were scary was as much down to the quieter sections as it was to the battles. Let the player stew for a while and speculate over where the next attack will come from. Hell, let us do the whole "fortify an area and then defend it" thing, with multiple routes to seal off and keep secure.

    4) Give us proper squad-mates. The banter between the squad is one of the best things about Aliens. Even when AvP2 first came out, it seemed a bit poor that we spent so much of the Marine campaign separated from our squad by rather artificial plot twists. Gears of War and other games have shown that squad mates don't have to be low-IQ encumberances in modern action games.

    5) You don't need to let us play as the Alien. But if you do (and if it isn't multiplayer-only), then please, for the love of god, let us actually feel like the Alien. Don't make us hunt around for a tiny little vent tucked away in the top corner of the room, just because there's a flimsy little door blocking our way. The Alien is an 8-foot-tall spikey bundle of destruction. While stealth and sneaking should always be an option for it (and often deeply useful for closing the gap against enemies with ranged weapons), a little more tolerance of brute-force solutions than we saw in the AvP games would be extremely nice.

    6) This should go without saying, but please, whatever you do, keep the setting and timeline close to the second movie. Resurrection wasn't scary (except in the sheer fact that something that bad managed to get released). The extended universe from the books and comics may have some potential, but it needs to look and feel like the second movie.

    7) Depart from the canon if you want, but depart in the detail rather than in the spirit. I know there are some people out there who will throw a tantrum if you change the clip-size on the pulse-rifle, or add a single new Alien strain, but I'm not one of them. By all means, if you want to add a little variety to the enemies, add stuff beyond the basic models from the movies. I don't think AvP2 suffered at all from the inclusion of the Praetorian and the extended universe has added a couple of extra beasties such as the Queen Mother. If you have any other strains that fit the plot, then use them. Just be sure to keep the look and feel of anything you add consistent with the original setting.
    • comparing AvP 2 to Gears of War is hardly fair...

      The best part about the Alien in previous titles was the ability to hang on ceilings/walls and stalk other players, with the odd bit of rushing past them just to make them waste ammo (oh the memories of late nights in the undergrad CS lab). the AvP series is the only game where this is a viable tactic. More along these lines would rock.

      I never managed to complete the Alien campaign in AvP2, because I got bored with that 'find the duct' aproach. I didn't even

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by iainl ( 136759 )
      Sega haven't bought rights to the Predator or AvP itself, so we're in luck there.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Dr. Manhattan ( 29720 )

      No Predator. Please, god, no Predator.

      I could go either way on that. The Predator at least had some interesting weapons. If they used some kind of 'code of honor' to encourage unusual gameplay, it could work. It'd take some careful thought, though.

      Give us a plot that hopefully doesn't involve yet-another-mad-scientist-trying-to-control-the-Al iens

      From your lips to the developer'r ears, please!

      Hell, let us do the whole "fortify an area and then defend it" thing

      Bingo. They might take a few cues from N [unknownworlds.com]

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by WormholeFiend ( 674934 )
      So basically, just a bug hunt?
    • Make sure the audio gets as much attention as the graphics. The echos and sound of the radar in the AvP game (human campaign) for the PC were very well done for the time and added immensely to the feeling of fear and paranoia.

  • Wii? (Score:4, Funny)

    by FleaPlus ( 6935 ) on Wednesday December 13, 2006 @06:19AM (#17220500) Journal
    I wonder if they're counting the Wii as one of the next-gen systems. It'd be pretty amusing to use a Wiimote to play as a facehugger, hunting down a human and having a little mini-game where you're wiggling around the Wiimote to try to lay eggs in their throat. After gestation, then there could be the chestburster mini-game, using the Wiimote to try to jab through somebody's ribcage. :)
    • Given the panic I got into playing previous Alien titles, I dread to think what would happen if I had an 'THEY'RE COMING OUTA THE WALLS!' Moment with that remote in hand.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by rob1980 ( 941751 )
      That would frickin rock... and I would finally get up off my lazy ass and go buy a Wii just for that.
  • The game showed promise, but the engine was crap it was really sluggish for the low quality graphics it produced.

    PvP had some problems because with some video drivers the marines could still see Predators even when they where cloaked and standing still.

    Was not too bad in the end I guess, but could have been a lot better. Hope they do another one that's much better.
  • When you cite developpers, don't forget rebellion http://www.rebellion.co.uk/ [rebellion.co.uk]. They did the only excellent jaguar game, and they did the better episode of the pc series.
    • I'm mucking with icculus' AvP port [icculus.org], trying to finish off the features. I've fixed some compile issues and got the music playing from Ogg files instead of CD-ROM, and I'm about halfway there on getting the in-game movies to play (yay ffmpeg for supporting Smacker vids now). (BTW, the in-game movies on the first edition are way better than the ones in the 'Gold' edition. The first edition had actual actors, for the 'Gold' edition they let the developers flex their vanity and 'act'. Bad move.)

      One irritating

    • They did the only excellent jaguar game

      Jeff "Tempest 2000" Minter would like to have a word with you.
  • I refer you to the late, lamented Space Hulk [mobygames.com]. It was sort of a weird hybrid of FPS and RTS, but it was an absolutely INCREDIBLE game for its time. (and really, still is, if you can get past the '93 graphics) Squad-level combat/tactics, with slavering aliens waiting to come out of the goddamn walls around every corner.

    The world could really use a remake of that game (the '96 sequel sucked), and the subject matter is perfect. And it would lend itself perfectly to co-op network play.

    The Aliens FPS has be

    • I remember that game well! I even played the board-game. (In the board-game, you used to put together the maps with these giant puzzle pieces with corridors and corners and whatnot. Cardboard pieces represented marines or blips of the aliens. When the blip was within sight of a marine, it would then change into however many aliens the blip represented.) Both were excellent. I also agree that the sequel to the video game was crappy.

      Anyway, that game would be a great one to remake. Space Hulk was based
      • Yeah... I never did understand how they didn't manage to get sued by Brandywine. That game WAS "Aliens: Tac Ops" in all but name.

        I'm just imagining it as remade and being played on X-Box live. The cross chatter would be phenominal.

  • If they want Aliens done right, they should talk to the Unknown Worlds team that created the Natural Selection mod for Half-Life. If there was ever a game that captured the mood and excitement of the Aliens movie, it's NS.

    http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns/ [unknownworlds.com]

  • I don't give a fuck about the "franchise"...just make it a good game.
  • As long as Sigourney Weaver isn't involved it might be good.
  • Looks like the first of the games developed with this license will be an Alien RPG deveoped by Obsidian [gamasutra.com].

    Hopefully Sega aren't as bad to work with as Lucasarts are. I don't want to see another good Obsidian RPG forced out three or four months before it's ready. Knights of the Old Republic 2 would have been a fantastic game had they been allowed to finish it. With all the bugs and missing bits it ended up at the low end of average. Neverwinter Nights 2 is undercooked too.
  • The Alien game is said to be made by Obsidian (NeverWinter Nights 2), and that the game will be an RPG.

    Sorry folks, no FPS, RTS or Action title.

    (Although from the demographics at /., i'm guessing the fact that it's an RPG is actually good news)

    Here's a link:
    http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/750/750837p1.html [ign.com]

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